Cape Coral restricts locations for new self-storage facilities
Cape Coral City Council approved an amendment to its land development code regarding self-storage facilities on Wednesday, suspending a moratorium that put a temporary stop to new construction.
The ordinance passed 7-1, with Councilmember Richard Carr dissenting.
It was one of a pair of ordinances approved by the elected board to regulate allowable locations for two types of businesses city officials say have proliferated within the Cape, the other being car washes.
New locational limitations mandate a one-mile separation between like facilities and require that they be a minimum of 500 feet away from major intersections.
As with the related measure, provisions that limit where self storage units may be built was an issue within the business community.
BJM Consulting, Inc. President Joe Mazurkiewicz said he supports the city’s making self storage facilities a conditional use, but expressed issues with the one-mile radius and distance-to-intersection restrictions.
“Within 500 foot of an intersection, you have taken two potential uses away from a private property owner. You have created winners and losers,” he said. “The first one is precluded from anyone coming in second. This is a taking. It’s not a form of American governance,” he said.
“Taking” is defined as a government action that devalues property via regulatory action. Under state law, the property owner may seek legal redress in the form of compensation for the “taking.”
The ordinance also provides that enclosure is require; mixed use inclusion; building and site aesthetics; perimeter landscaping; outdoor storage and display; hours of access and prohibitions.
Self-storage facilities will be collectively be limited to a citywide maximum of 10 square feet per resident.
The current allowance based on population provides for 2.13 million square feet. The existing square footage that is either built or pending is 3.10 million square feet. The allowance, based on the max population of 375,000, would be 3.75 million square feet citywide.
The estimates come from the Bureau of Economic and Business Research, and the city, which will track what is permitted.
There are also mixed-use inclusions in the code for those integrated vertical mixed-use developments. There are four areas that must be met. Those include it must predominately front directly along and towards the adjacent rights-of-way and no storage unit or area may occupy any area of the ground level.
Site aesthetics should include having an appearance of a multi-floor structure and parking areas and loading and unloading zones shall be oriented away from residential districts and right of way.
Anthony Santora, senior planner for the city, discussed two items the council wished to look in conjunction with self-storage facilities — vehicle and trailer rentals, and vehicle and trailer permanent storage.
The storage component had too many moving parts and could not be specifically addressed within the ordinance. Santora said city staff would have to adequately develop guidelines for vehicles and trailers for permanent storage, which would be approached at a later date as a separate item.
As far as rentals, allowances could be made.
Council approved removing subsections specifically regarding prohibitions of rental and parking.
Santora said that all vehicles and trailers associated would have to be permanently parked behind the facility, and not along rights-of-way, or adjacent to residential uses unless buffering and enclosures were provided.
Santora said rental areas are done as a condition of approval through the conditional use process.
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